A real to-do list

Let me tell you what I’d do if I were president (a job I assure you I would not take, even if I were eligible and it was offered to me):

Legalize jueteng you’ll never stop it. Bingo is legal, casinos are legal, why is just one form not? Legalize it, you can control it. Legalize it and the crime syndicates go bankrupt. Think of prohibition in the States, it didn’t work, legalizing drinking did.

Abolish the National Food Authority use conditional cash transfers. With a debt of P177 billion, it’s a proven failure. Give the poor the cash to buy from a competitive market.

Mandate that all pork barrel funds should go to education and health it’s a no–brainer for anyone who wants to reduce corruption and really move the country forward. And politicians will get re-elected for helping the kids.

Revive family planning and sex education in school ask the United States to provide free condoms again.

Add carriages to MRT-3 and reduce the number of buses on EDSA by half, controlled into the right-hand lane only LRT-7 will help greatly here, but when does it get started? No, when does it get finished? We’ve waited nine years, how many more?

Make English the primary language of learning but retain Filipino as a secondary language. Retaining your links to your history and culture is important, but getting a job so you can eat is essential.

Negotiate power plants we know the cost. We need power NOW. Declare a state of emergency if necessary, because it is an emergency. The urgency of this matter cannot be overemphasized. There’s no time for the niceties of public bidding.

Order transparency in government a law can follow. All President Noynoy Aquino has to do is order all departments to open their books to anyone who asks. It doesn’t need a law if you’re willing and if you have nothing to hide.

Reduce cigarette taxes to one tier or, reluctantly, two the currently mangled law is depriving the government of billions. Like most countries in world today, we need high taxes on cigarettes they kill.

Increase VAT to 15 percent and greatly reduce personal income tax for salaries below P20,000 per month I know this is highly controversial, and greatly resisted. But I’d far rather pay tax when I spend than when I earn. And why force high income taxes on low income earners? Give them as much money in their pockets as possible.

Scrap the idea of receipts and taxes for sari-sari stores they can come later, if at all. Let those with marginal incomes also maximize the use of what little they get.

Create a Department of Information and Communications Technology it’s going to be the biggest sector, it needs its own department to give it the priority and importance it must have.

Split the Department of Environment and Natural Resources you can’t promote and regulate in the same office. The conflict this develops is emphasized by what’s happening in Tampakan now. Here’s the country’s biggest investment ever that needs all the government support it can get, yet must do the least damage to the environment. There’s two sides that can’t be adequately resolved by one person the DENR Secretary. It needs two arguing for an ultimate solution.

Scrap the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform program, 21 years was long enough it hasn’t worked and you need plantations, economies of scale in agriculture. Farmers scrabbling for a living can earn far more employed on a plantation.

Resolve the Ninoy Aquino International Airport mess within 90 days, not 91 either through a final court decision or a unilateral decision by the Philippine government to just pay a fair price.

The trouble is my list will require a dictatorship to effect, and I’m against dictatorship. President Ramos did a very skillful job of pulling politicians and others onto one side to effect his major reforms (deregulation of telecoms and the oil industry were two that had dramatic, positive impact on society) but the time ran out to do any more . Estrada couldn’t spell the word and GMA’s reforms well what were they? I can’t find any of major significance. Even raising VAT, she resisted until she was left with no choice. Roll-on roll-off we can give her, but it’s not really a reform.

I hope P-Noy can emulate Ramos in skillfully working with Congress to effect reforms such as the ones I’ve listed. Such as the ones Congress has resisted the Department of ICT has been on its books for a decade. It’s non-controversial, has good sense to it, yet it has gotten nowhere. As has too much else in Congress. Faster action is certainly needed there.

President Aquino is going to have to use the power of the people to force revolutionary change. It’s what he promised, he has 88 percent support to do it. So just do it. Politicians want to get re-elected three years from now. He has the power now, he must use it. –Peter Wallace, Manila Standard Today